F inancial institutions have financed the disruption of countless industries over the last 30 years; they have an idea of what a revolutionary technology can do to static incumbents. So, to stay ahead of change, banks have been proactive in setting up R&D labs, building test centers and establishing partnerships with blockchain developers to fully understand the revolutionary potential of the technology. Financial institutions were the first to dip their feet in, but academia, governments and consulting firms have also studied the technology. All of this work is, of course, in addition to what the entrepreneurs and developers are doing, either by finding new ways to use the bitcoin or ethereum blockchains, or else creating entirely new blockchains. This is what we know a blockchain can do: Establish Digital Identity: The identity component of blockchain technology is fulfi
What is blockchain technology? A blockchain originally block chain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks , which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, a timestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. A blockchain can serve as "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way". The first work on a cryptographically secured chain of blocks was described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta. It can also be defined as " A database or a ledger that maintains a continuously growing list of data records or transactions" . "So, it's a spreadsheet, like Excel?" Many of us may be thinking of that. In a way yes , but it has qualities that make it better than traditional databases.